I am using a model that consists of many fields. There is one field that is a property, and it returns an instance of a model. Something like the following:
class A(Model):
@property
def last_obj(self):
# Returns an object
The issue I'm having is that this property can return 2 different Model types. It can either return an object of type one, or an object of type two. This creates complications in the serializer. I have a serializer that consists of nested serializers. The two objects are similar enough that one serializer can be used over the other, but then the fields unique to them are not serialized.
class A_Serializer(Serializer):
class SerializerOne(CustomSerializer):
#Serializes certain fields in custom manner
class Meta:
model = models.one
exclude = ('id')
base_name = 'one'
class SerializerTwo(CustomSerializer):
#Serializes certain fields in custom manner
class Meta:
model = models.two
exclude = ('id')
base_name = 'two'
last_obj = SerializerOne() #This works, but not viable because of what I stated above
So my solution to be able to dynamically call the correct serializer, was to conditionally serialize the property within a serializer method field:
class A_Serializer(Serializer):
class SerializerOne(CustomSerializer):
#Serializes certain fields in custom manner
class Meta:
model = models.one
exclude = ('id')
base_name = 'one'
class SerializerTwo(CustomSerializer):
#Serializes certain fields in custom manner
class Meta:
model = models.two
exclude = ('id')
base_name = 'two'
def get_last_obj(self, instance):
if (isinstance(instance.last_obj, models.one)):
return self.SerializerOne(instance.last_obj).data
else:
return self.SerializerTwo(instance.last_obj).data
last_obj = SerializerMethodField() #Does not work
However, this solution creates the error "NoneType Object is not iterable" and it happens at
super(ReturnDict, self).__init__(*args, **kwargs) in rest_framework/utils/serializers_helpers.py in init which causes the error at return ReturnDict(ret, serializer=self) in rest_framework/serializers.py in data
I do not understand why calling a nested serializer like obj = Serializer() works, but calling the serializer explicitly like obj = Serializer(instance).data does not work in this situation. Can anyone figure out what I have been doing wrong? Thank you.
I have found out from here that when working with hyperlinked relations (which in my case was the CustomSerializer that SerializerOne and SerializerTwo were inheriting from), you must pass the request object through context. The reason why obj = Serializer() works, but obj = Serializer(instance).data does not work is that in the former, the request object is automatically added through context through DRF. While in the latter, it is being explicitly called so you must pass context with the request object manually. So for me to get it working, I did:
return self.SerializerOne(instance.last_obj, context={'request': self.context['request']}).data
inside the serializer method field.